Cooperstown’s
Baseball Hall Of Fame

Is Home To The Great
And The Elite

Seventy five years ago George Herman
(Babe) Ruth was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Since then, a
select group of the game’s former great players are considered for
induction into this elite fraternity each year.

For the past twelve years I have
represented The Tribune at baseball’s hometown, Cooperstown, New York and
interacted with some of the legends who make this America’s favorite game.

This year three more baseball greats
joined the Hall of Fame family; 12-time All Star and 10-time Gold Glove
award-winning second baseman Roberto Alomar, Bert (Rik Aalbert) Blyleven,
the first Hall of Fame ‘Dutchman’ from Holland with the amazing ‘dropping
curveball’, and former general manager of the Blue Jays, Orioles, Mariners
and Phillies, Pat Gillick.

Also this year, the Hall of Fame
lost ‘Sparky’ Anderson, Bob Feller, Harmon Killebrew and ‘Duke’ Snider.
The Tribune published a great story about Feller’s patriotism and heroism
as the first baseball star to enlist in the Armed Forces following Pearl
Harbor and several articles about Harmon Killebrew reaching out to
children as well as adults on the topic of courage and integrity in the
game of baseball.

This year a parade was held along
Main Street followed later in the day with a special awards presentation
at Doubleday Field. The special awards were presented to Bill Conlin, who
spent more than 40 years as a Major League baseball sportswriter in
Philadelphia, Dave Van Horn, who devoted 43 seasons calling play-by-play
action on radio for the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals) and
currently for the Florida Marlins and the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement
Award went to Roland Hemond for enhancing baseball’s positive impact on
society during a seven decade career in front office management.

In closing, The Tribune would like
to offer prayers and best wishes to Hall of Famer Gary Carter, ‘The Kid,’
who is battling his biggest at bat against brain cancer.